Some photos from an assignment: 4H shooting sports

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The 4H Shooting Sports is an opportunity for people of all ages to learn how to participate safely in various shootings sports, including archery, crossbow, air pistol, rifle, shotgun, and muzzleloader. The overall emphasis during the multi-week course is on safety, which means classroom or field instruction followed by "learning by doing," in which there is a one-to-one ratio of instructors to students.

A couple of technical notes: there were some serious advantages to using a superzoom for an assignment like this. (1) With the exception of the last shot (the certificate), nothing was posed. It was all shot "on the fly" which means taking shots as I could while activities were taking place. With shooting sports, there are obvious limitations on where the photographer can safely be positioned, and the superzoom allowed me to get close without interfering with the activity or being unsafe (the instructors would have not allowed that anyway). (2) The small sensor meant high equivalent apertures, and, as a result, I didn't have to worry about depth of field issues.